Rick Holmes: Big job, small candidates for Kennedy's seat

Saturday

Sep 26, 2009 at 12:01 AMSep 26, 2009 at 1:37 PM

Ted Kennedy is gone, and the lack of stature among those hoping to take his place has even loyal longtime Democrats scratching their heads.

Hailing the state's newly appointed junior senator Thursday, Sen. John F. Kerry declared, with typical hauteur, "We are blessed in Massachusetts to have an enduring surplus of political and civic talent."

Could've fooled me.

That's the kind of thing I've heard from Massachusetts Democrats for years. This is the land of political giants, whether they are candidates, legislators or campaign operatives, they say.

But when the largest pine in the forest falls, you see how puny are the trees that tried to take root in its shadow. Ted Kennedy is gone, and the lack of stature among those hoping to take his place has even loyal longtime Democrats scratching their heads.

There's Martha Coakley, widely acknowledged to be the front-runner. She's bright, charming and attractive. She's also inexperienced, untested and unproven. What has she done? What does she stand for?

Coakley has led a charmed political life. In 1998, she rode the headlines she made prosecuting Newton nanny Louise Woodward into the Middlesex County District Attorney's office. She followed a familiar path from there to the state Attorney General's office, drawing no opposition in the primary and almost no opposition in the general election. She's never had a tough race.

As attorney general, she settled the most serious lawsuits involving the Big Dig, without making anyone feel any better about that fiasco. She led a half-hearted effort to stop an effort to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, and 65 percent of voters rejected her advice.

That's about it. She has left the prosecuting of corrupt Bay State officials to the feds. She's never been a legislator. If she has strong opinions on foreign policy, health care reform, climate change or a host of issues facing the United States Senate, I've yet to hear them. If she has ever taken a political risk, or broken a sweat trying to accomplish something truly difficult, it's news to me.

As for other candidates, Massachusetts has some Congressional members with real clout in the House, but they have chosen to stay there. Barney Frank is a national figure and an engaging, if controversial, campaigner, but he'd rather redesign the country's financial industry than be the most junior member of the Senate.

Ed Markey is long on House service and short on both charisma and statewide ambition. He is little-known outside his district, and folks in Framingham will tell you he's little-seen within his district. Jim McGovern wants to chair the House Rules Committee, like his mentor, Joe Moakley. Richie Neal is an inside player in the House and happy to stay that way.

Then there's Rep. Michael Capuano, who is free to run for Senate because he doesn't have much to do in the House. He's got all the charm of his native Somerville and has a long way to go if he hopes to broaden his appeal. If he's ever been west of Rte. 128, his most frequent stops have been at Mass. Pike rest areas.

The field thins out from there. Steve Pagliuca fits more of a Republican profile - rich businessman who decides to parachute into politics for a midlife fling. He says he's a committed Democrat who grew up in Framingham, which comes as news to committed Democrats in Framingham.

Pagliuca is already pressing his main advantage, which is the $400 million he is said to have in the bank. He's hired top notch political talent and his commercials are all over TV. But the top-notchers are already letting him down. Surely they know that if your candidate isn't especially good-looking, doesn't speak well and has nothing interesting to say, you don't have him staring stiffly at the camera and talking for 30 seconds in his introductory ads.

Then there's Alan Khazei. Alan Khazei?

Yes, there are Republicans in the race, too. For about 36 hours, it looked like Andy Card, who served as White House Chief of Staff under George W. Bush, was ready to make the leap. That would have been fun, giving Democrats the chance to turn it into a referendum on Bush's presidency, which is probably why Card, a former state rep from Holbrook, changed his mind.

So the Republicans have Scott Brown, who is tall, good-looking, married to a TV news reporter (Channel 5's Gail Huff, who is so far keeping well out of camera range) and father of an American Idol finalist. Brown, a state senator from Wrentham, is a member of that tiny club of Beacon Hill Republicans whose vision matches their size.

The other Republican in the race is Canton Selectman Bob Burr. Bob Burr?

It's a short campaign - the primaries will be Dec. 8, the special election Jan. 19 - but the candidates are already off to a slow start. I've seen a few commercials, but there have been no candidate sightings in my neighborhood. Marlborough's Labor Day parade has been a fixture on the political calendar for generations. You'd have thought someone running for Senate, facing a tight deadline for collecting the 10,000 signatures required to make the primary ballot, would have either been at the parade or sent a contingent of supporters with large signs. None of them made the effort.

"It's the weirdest race I've ever seen," one longtime Democratic activist told me this week. People are choosing sides, but there's no excitement about the field. "I'm still waiting for another shoe to drop."

Could another candidate jump in and blow away the unexciting field? It would have to be someone with a statewide organization, a pile of ready cash or major name recognition. A Globe columnist suggested Deval Patrick might be better suited to the Senate than the governor's office, but he's committed to a re-election bid, and even the most loyal Democrats are turning on him.

Ex-Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling generated some energy for a few days, but he seems to have things he'd rather do than full-time politics. Pagliuca, part-owner of the Celtics, has tried to play the sports card, but it won't carry him far. If a real Celtic jumped in - Worcester's Bob Cousy, or, better yet, Bill Russell - you'd see some excitement.

A friend heard rumors that two Martha's Vineyard residents might consider a race: novelist Tom Clancy as a Republican and singer James Taylor as a Democrat. Both would start out at the top of the charts.

That made me think of a western Mass. resident from the entertainment world who would be an even more exciting candidate: If Al Franken can run for the Senate, why not Bill Cosby?

Such speculation is a symptom of our discontent. The candidates who are in - and I really don't expect more - will have the chance to show us what they've got. But for now, the Bay State political world is grappling with an uncomfortable fact: A political giant has left behind an open Senate seat for the first time in 25 years, and a ragtag band of pygmies is vying to fill it.

Rick Holmes, opinion editor of the MetroWest Daily News, blogs at Holmes & Co. (http://blogs.townonline.com/holmesandco). He can be reached at rholmes@cnc.com.

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